Andrew Georgiou

Macquarie University · Australian Institute of Health Innovation

Objectives To investigate associations between sociodemographic factors, pre‐existing chronic comorbidities, and general practitioner‐led diagnosis of long COVID. Design, setting, patients We conducted a retrospective observational case–control study using de‐identified electronic general practice data, recorded between January 2020 and March 2023...

Background and objectives: Patients with prolonged symptoms following COVID-19 infection(s) will increasingly present to general practice. Our research objective was to understand the general practice experience of diagnosing and managing long COVID and to explore recommendations for contributing to the safety and quality of the long COVID respons...

Background: Older adults in residential aged care facilities (RACFs) experience disproportionate levels of poor oral health relative to other groups in the general population, affecting their physical and mental wellbeing. The Oral Health Assessment Tool (OHAT) is a validated and widely used dental assessment tool; however, recent systematic review...

Introduction Untreated hearing loss is reported to negatively impact on an individual’s quality of life, affecting their psychological and physical health and placing them at greater risk of developing dementia. Despite this, hearing loss management is often delayed by up to a decade. This is likely due to difficulties in navigating the hearing car...

The “Emergency Department Pathology Order Support Tool” (ED-POST) is an electronic laboratory test ordering decision support tool that aims to decrease variation in test ordering practices. As part of a larger project on the co-design, development, and evaluation of ED-POST, this study aimed to explore the workflow nuances that might affect the int...

Laboratory tests play an integral role in the delivery of quality health care. However, evidence indicates variations in diagnostic testing, which can lead to patient safety risks. Electronic decision support systems are often identified as key to reducing diagnostic error. However, such tools are often introduced into a clinical setting with littl...

Objectives Inclusion of consumer perspectives is a key component to person‐centred health‐care approaches. While current residential aged care systems focus on recording adverse events to meet the requirements of regulatory reporting, little is known about the views of residents. The aim of this research was to explore residents' responses on the t...

Objective Given the diverse ethnic backgrounds of aged care clients, there is a critical requirement to translate psychosocial assessment tools into various languages to effectively evaluate social engagement and quality of life in older adults receiving aged care services. This study aimed to translate psychosocial tools into Turkish, Korean and M...

Objective Health-related apps on mobile devices (mHealth apps) have become an effective self-management tool and treatment support for patients. There is limited research, however, on how older people (50 and over) perceive the opportunity of using mHealth apps. Our aim was to investigate the perceptions of older people in Australia regarding the o...

The Intensive Care Unit (ICU) is an information-intense environment where more patient data points are recorded than in other wards. The electronic Record for Intensive Care (eRIC) is an ICU information system that integrates patient data every minute from multiple systems. Once implemented across New South Wales (NSW), eRIC will be one of the larg...

Germany became the first country to accept certain mobile health (mHealth) apps for prescription with costs covered by statutory health insurance. Yet, this option has only been used to a limited extent. To develop an international comparison, this study investigates GPs’ perceptions of mHealth apps with a medical purpose in Germany and Australia....

Background This study estimated the prevalence of evidence-based care received by a population-based sample of Australian residents in long-term care (LTC) aged ≥ 65 years in 2021, measured by adherence to clinical practice guideline (CPG) recommendations. Methods Sixteen conditions/processes of care amendable to estimating evidence-based care at...

Introduction Mental health conditions, such as depression, anxiety, and psychological distress in the adult population significantly increased during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the rates of prescribing psychotropic medications in adults during the COVID-19 period have not been well explored. Aim The aim of this study was to examine the associa...

The COVID-19 pandemic necessitated a shift in the delivery of patient care, with telehealth rapidly scaled to facilitate access to care while reducing risks of COVID-19 transmission. In this paper, we present an overview of key findings regarding telehealth use from a large program of work examining the impact of the pandemic on general practice ac...

Laboratory tests have an important role in informing diagnosis and aiding in the determination of appropriate courses of management and/or treatment in the Emergency Department setting. Over-ordering of laboratory tests can lead to increased costs and/or unnecessary patient procedures, whilst under-ordering can lead to patient safety concerns and/o...

Objectives: This paper reports on a program of research funded by a National Health and Medical Research Council (NHRMC) partnership grant (2015-2021) entitled "Delivering safe and effective test result communication, management and follow-up". The project's objectives were to: 1) improve the effectiveness and safety of test-result management thro...

Unlabelled: Objectives and importance of study: Despite the abundance of mental health research during the pandemic, there is limited evidence exploring mental health presentations to Australian general practice. This study examined the utilisation of telehealth for mental health consultations in Australian general practice during the COVID-19 pan...

Objectives and importance of study: Despite the abundance of mental health research during the pandemic, there is limited evidence exploring mental health presentations to Australian general practice. This study examined the utilisation of telehealth for mental health consultations in Australian general practice during the COVID-19 pandemic. The ob...

Objectives: This paper reports on a program of research funded by a National Health and Medical Research Council (NHRMC) partnership grant (2015–2021) entitled “Delivering safe and effective test result communication, management and follow-up”. The project’s objectives were to: 1) improve the effectiveness and safety of test-result management throu...

Despite the renewed interest in Artificial Intelligence-based clinical decision support systems (AI-CDS), there is still a lack of empirical evidence supporting their effectiveness. This underscores the need for rigorous and continuous evaluation and monitoring of processes and outcomes associated with the introduction of health information technol...

Major challenges exist in identifying Long COVID patients from diagnosis texts recorded by general practitioners. A classification framework is proposed that can be used to identify Long COVID patients given these unstructured diagnostic texts. This framework can be leveraged to provide a general understanding of the risk factors, management strate...

Digital health can play a key role in diagnostic stewardship, which refers to the coordinated guidance and interventions to ensure the appropriate utilisation of diagnostic tests for therapeutic decision-making. Outcomes of test result management and the impacts of digital health are a result of the interaction between dimensions of a complex envir...

Mobile health applications (mHealth apps) can provide effective self-management instruments for patients and offer advanced approaches to treatment. However, little is known about how the older population perceives the opportunity of using mHealth apps as a non-drug intervention. We aimed to identify the opinions and experiences of older people in...

Objective: Germany is the first country that approved validated mobile health apps (called DiGA) for prescription by doctors and psychotherapists. The aim of this study is to investigate doctors' perspectives towards these mobile health apps and their intentions to prescribe them. Additionally, we investigated the influence of different roles and...

Objective To describe changing primary care ordering of serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25OHD) tests in Australian children. Design Longitudinal, population-based descriptive study of 25OHD testing using a large administrative dataset of pathology orders and results, 2003–2018. Setting and participants Three primary health networks in Victoria, Austra...

Background: Ongoing advancements in digital solutions support older adults' healthy aging and well-being. However, a unified synthesis of sociodemographic, cognitive, attitudinal, emotional, and environmental factors that influence older adults' intention to use these new digital technologies is still lacking. Understanding the salient factors tha...

Background The enactment of the “Act to Improve Healthcare Provision through Digitalisation and Innovation ” (Digital Healthcare Act; Digitale-Versorgung-Gesetz [DVG]) in Germany has introduced a paradigm shift in medical practice, allowing physicians to prescribe mobile health (mHealth) apps alongside traditional medications. This transformation i...

BACKGROUND The enactment of the “Act to Improve Healthcare Provision through Digitalisation and Innovation ” (Digital Healthcare Act; Digitale-Versorgung-Gesetz [DVG]) in Germany has introduced a paradigm shift in medical practice, allowing physicians to prescribe mobile health (mHealth) apps alongside traditional medications. This transformation i...

Background: Better adherence to guideline-recommended glycated haemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) testing frequency is associated with better glycaemic control and lower risk of complications such as chronic kidney disease in patients with type 2 diabetes. This study investigates patient and practice factors associated with adherence to guideline-recommended...

Background Opioid use is common among adults 65 years and older, while long-term use of opioids remains controversial and poses risks of drug dependence and other adverse events. The acute disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) pandemic has created new challenges and barriers to healthcare access, particularly for long-term care residents. Aus...

UNSTRUCTURED There is an urgent need to incorporate theory-informed health information technology evaluation frameworks into existing and emerging guidelines for the evaluation of Artificial Intelligence. Such frameworks can help developers, implementers, and strategic decision makers to build on existing experience and the existing empirical evide...

Given the requirement to minimize the risks and maximize the benefits of technology applications in health care provision, there is an urgent need to incorporate theory-informed health IT (HIT) evaluation frameworks into existing and emerging guidelines for the evaluation of artificial intelligence (AI). Such frameworks can help developers, impleme...

Objective: Telehealth has been an integral part of ensuring continued general practice access during the Covid-19 pandemic. Whether telehealth was similarly adopted across different ethnic, cultural, and linguistic groups in Australia is unknown. In this study, we assessed how telehealth utilisation differed by birth country. Methods: In this re...

This analysis assessed the sociodemographic characteristics of telehealth utilisation during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) pandemic from March 2020 to August 2021 in Australia. Drawing on 860 general practice providers among 3 161 868 patients, 24 527 274 consultations were recorded. Telehealth accounted for 37.6% of the consultations, wi...

Background: Adverse incidents are well studied within acute care settings, less so within aged care homes. The aim of this scoping review was to define the types of adverse incidents studied in aged care homes and highlight strengths, gaps, and challenges of this research. Methods: An expanded definition of adverse incidents including physical, soc...

Objective Gout, a common form of arthritis, can be controlled successfully with pharmacotherapy and is thus an ideal model for examining chronic disease management. Our aim was to examine treatment of gout evaluated in accordance with general management guidelines for gout as applied to Australian residential aged care facilities. Methods Electron...

BACKGROUND Ongoing advancements in digital solutions support older adults’ healthy aging and well-being. However, a unified synthesis of sociodemographic, cognitive, attitudinal, emotional, and environmental factors that influence older adults’ intention to use these new digital technologies is still lacking. Understanding the salient factors that...

There is a growing awareness of the need to create residential care systems for older people that encompass strong safe environments and effective clinical care processes alongside attention to dignity and quality of life. Drawing on three studies: i) a scoping review of 46 published articles; ii) examination of 67,000 residential aged care inciden...

The onset of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, caused by SARS-CoV-2, and the ensuing implementation of response measures directly impacted the delivery of Australian primary care services. Understanding how these measures affected practice activity is important for gauging both their effectiveness and implications for future service...

Objectives: Telehealth has emerged as a viable and safe mode of care delivery in Australia during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, electronic general practice data reveal differences in uptake and consultation mode, which we hypothesise may be due to potential barriers impacting on quality of care. We aimed to identify the benefits and barriers of...

What adversely impacts older people in residential aged care? Drawing from three studies (a scoping review, analysis of incident report data, and interviews with residents), this presentation brings together differing perspectives on adverse incidents in aged care. Emerging themes are presented which challenges the traditional definition of advers...

Background: Pneumonia is one of the leading causes of mortality and morbidity worldwide. Microbiology tests play a critical role in the diagnosis of pneumonia. Our study aimed to determine microbiology result reporting times and evaluate their association with outcomes of adult patients (≥18 years) hospitalised with pneumonia. Methods: This is a...

UNSTRUCTURED NA. This is a research letter not requiring abstract

Background Increasing both the frequency and quality of social interactions within treatments for anxiety and depressive disorders in older adults may improve their mental health outcomes and quality of life. This study aims to evaluate the clinical efficacy and cost utility of an enhanced cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) plus social participati...

Communication between patients and hospital staff is a vital part of patient satisfaction and can contribute to better healthcare outcomes. Especially in emergency departments, where the workload is high, it is difficult to always address the communication needs of patients. In a qualitative study, we interviewed 32 patients in emergency department...

Objectives: Patient portals are increasingly implemented to improve patient involvement and engagement. We here seek to provide an overview of ways to mitigate existing concerns that these technologies increase inequity and bias and do not reach those who could benefit most from them. Methods: Based on the current literature, we review the limitati...

Introduction: Our earlier analysis during the COVID-19 surges in 2020 showed a reduction in general practitioner (GP) in-person visits to residential aged care facilities (RACFs) and increased use of telehealth. This study assessed how sociodemographic characteristics affected telehealth utilisation. Methods: This retrospective cohort consists o...

Background: People who live in aged care homes have high rates of illness and frailty. Providing evidence-based care to this population is vital to ensure the highest possible quality of life. This study (CareTrack Aged, CT Aged) aimed to develop a comprehensive set of clinical indicators for guideline-adherent, appropriate care of commonly manage...

Background The Australian government introduced temporary government-subsidised telehealth service items (phone and video-conference) in mid-March 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The uptake of telehealth by type 2 diabetes (T2DM) patients for consulting with General Practitioners (GPs) is unknown. Aim To evaluate the uptake of telehealt...

Objectives Gout, a common form of arthritis, can be successfully controlled with pharmacotherapy and thus an ideal model for examining chronic disease management. Our aim was to examine treatment of gout evaluated in accordance with general management guidelines for gout as applied to Australian residential aged care facilities (RACFs).Methods Elec...

Histopathologists make diagnostic decisions that are thought to be based on pattern recognition, likely informed by cue-based associations formed in memory, a process known as cue utilisation. Typically, the cases presented to the histopathologist have already been classified as ‘abnormal’ by clinical examination and/or other diagnostic tests. This...

Adverse events research in residential aged care predominately focuses on physical impacts experienced by older persons living in aged care. Yet the WHO definition of health describes health as not only as the absence of disease, but the intersection of physical, mental, and social wellbeing. This paper draws on evidence from (i) a scoping review o...

Background Since the World Health Organisation declared COVID-19 a pandemic on 11 March 2020, health technologies have been rapidly scaled up to ensure access to care. A significant innovation has been telehealth in general practice. Now widespread, it remains unknown how this shift to virtual care has impacted on quality-of-care indicators such as...

Background There has been a precipitous rise telehealth use in general practice during the COVID-19 pandemic. Understanding differences between face-to-face and telehealth consulting is an important component for planning the future use of telehealth services beyond the pandemic. However, there is limited evidence on whether telehealth consulting i...

Objective Suboptimal design of health information technology (IT) systems can lead to the introduction of errors in the diagnostic process. We aimed to identify mechanisms that can affect the safety and effectiveness of these systems in hospital settings thus contributing to the building of an explicit and replicable understanding of the variables...

The Australian residential aged care sector has been under scrutiny throughout the Royal Commission. The release of the final report and its recommendations have shown new thinking is required to facilitate a system combining medical care with social care, one that takes a person-centred approach to understanding events which impact its users and t...

Objective Adverse incident research within residential aged care facilities (RACFs) is increasing and there is growing awareness of safety and quality issues. However, large-scale evidence identifying specific areas of need and at-risk residents is lacking. This study used routinely collected incident management system data to quantify the types an...

Social participation is critical to the health and well‐being of older adults, however, participation often declines with age. Research has identified that personal and environmental factors such as high socioeconomic status and accessible transportation are associated with higher levels of social participation. However, the barriers and facilitato...

Background Health systems around the world have been forced to make choices about how to prioritize care, manage infection control and maintain reserve capacity for future disease outbreaks. Primary healthcare has moved into the front line as COVID-19 testing transitions from hospitals to multiple providers, where tracking testing behaviours can be...

Introduction: Up to one-third of laboratory tests ordered in the ED for adults presenting with undifferentiated chest pain are generally not indicated by current Australian guidelines. This study set out to undertake a qualitative investigation of clinician perceptions to identify the reasons for variations in pathology requesting. Methods: For...

Objectives: The size and type of older adults’ social networks is associated with health, mental and social outcomes. Investigators within many disciplines are now measuring social networks, but it is not always clear what they are assessing, or which measures may best meet their objectives. To undertake a systematic review to identify (i) social n...

Background: Pneumonia is one of the leading causes of mortality and morbidity worldwide. Microbiology tests play a critical role in the diagnosis of pneumonia. Our study aimed to determine microbiology result reporting times and evaluate its association with outcomes of adult patients (≥18 years) hospitalized with pneumonia. Methods: A 3-year (2016...

Introduction There is a clear need for improved care quality and quality monitoring in aged care. Aged care providers collect an abundance of data, yet rarely are these data integrated and transformed in real-time into actionable information to support evidence-based care, nor are they shared with older people and informal caregivers. This protocol...

Background and objective Serum iron results are not indicative of iron deficiency yet may be incorrectly used to diagnose iron deficiency instead of serum ferritin results. Our objective was to determine the association between serum iron test results and iron-deficiency diagnosis in children by general practitioners. Design, setting, patients and...

Background Measuring person-centred outcomes and using this information to improve service delivery is a challenge for many care providers. We aimed to identify predictors of QoL among older adults receiving community-based aged care services and examine variation across different community care service outlets. Methods A retrospective sample of 1...

The primary objective of this Snapshot is to examine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the number of mammograms and cervical screening tests using general practice data obtained from the POLAR platform. We compared our results with the national screening program data reported by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW)

Diagnostic investigations (pathology laboratory and medical imaging) aim to: increase certainty of the presence or absence of disease by supporting the process of differential diagnosis; support clinical management; and monitor a patient's trajectory (e. g., disease progression or response to treatment). Digital health can be defined as the collect...

Background Assessing the accuracy of diagnostic coding is essential to ensure the validity and reliability of administrative coded data. The aim of the study was to evaluate the accuracy of assigned International Classification of Diseases version 10-Australian Modification (ICD-10-AM) codes for influenza by comparing with patients’ results of thei...

Background As a major public health crisis, the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic demonstrates the urgent need for safe, effective, and evidence-based implementations of digital health. The urgency stems from the frequent tendency to focus attention on seemingly high promising digital health interventions despite being poorly valid...

Objectives: To highlight the role of technology assessment in the management of the COVID-19 pandemic. Method: An overview of existing research and evaluation approaches along with expert perspectives drawn from the International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA) Working Group on Technology Assessment and Quality Development in Health Informat...

Background: Influenza is a highly contagious respiratory virus with clinical impacts on patient morbidity, mortality and hospital bed management. The effect of rapid nucleic acid testing (RPCR) in comparison to standard multiplex PCR (MPCR) diagnosis in treatment decisions is unclear. This study aimed to determine whether RPCR influenza testing in...

Study objective Laboratory test use varies across emergency departments (EDs), yet little is known about the effect of this variation on outcomes. The aim of this study is 2-fold: to stratify EDs into clusters based on similar test use, and to determine whether the clusters differ in patient operational outcomes among patients presenting to EDs wit...

Background Measuring person-centred outcomes and using this information to improve service delivery is a challenge for many care providers. We aimed to identify predictors of QoL among older adults receiving community-based aged care services and examine variation across different community care service outlets. Methods A retrospective sample of 11...